The US writer and activist Rita Mae Brown said that “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” Today, at don Quijote, we take advantage of this quote to share and celebrate the importance of the Spanish language and its presence in countries around the world.

Click here to read this blog post in Spanish.

Surely you already know that Spanish is the second most spoken language by native speakers, mainly because of the expansion of the Spanish Empire that began in the Golden Age. In the territories of the empire, the language of administration and commerce was Spanish. Consequently, the language gained importance and, with the passing of time, it was established as an official language in many countries of Latin America.

However, this was not the only reason for Spanish to travel all over the planet, the migratory movements that took place in the 20th century caused the tongue of Cervantes to move to remote places where we find important communities of speakers nowadays.

1. Algeria

Spanish arrived in Algeria in 1492, when Spain was declared a Catholic nation and the Spanish speaking Muslims who rejected conversion were expelled out of its borders. Thousands of them moved to Algeria. Moreover, at the end of the Spanish Civil War, many Republicans had to take up exile and went to Algeria too.  Thanks to these factors, we can find more than two hundred thousand of Spanish speakers in the city of Oran now.

2. Aruba

Aruba is a small island in the Caribbean Sea and a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The official languages are Dutch and Papiamento, but Spanish is also spoken by 80% of the population. Spain controlled the island before the Dutch took control of it, but the language has also gained importance in the recent years because of the immigrants coming from Colombia and Venezuela. Moreover, the economic ties with Venezuela have forced many people to learn Spanish as a second language.

3. Belize

Although the official language of Belize is English since it was a British colony, the country also belonged to Spain in previous centuries. Hence, Spanish is spoken as a mother tongue by almost 50% of the population, mainly focused on the northern towns of Corozal and San Pedro.

4. Philippines

The Philippines is a country located in the Southeast of Asia which was a Spanish colony for more than three centuries, being Spanish the official language during that period. But when the United States invaded the Philippines at the end of the 19^th century, the English language was imposed and the use of Spanish forbidden. Consequently, much of the Spanish language disappeared, and the newer generations speak mainly English and Tagalog (a mixture of English, Spanish and native languages). However, the Spanish language has resisted, and we can still find a community of more than 2 million speakers in these remote islands.

5. Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea is a country located in Central Africa, but what few people know is that one of its official languages is Spanish. In 1778, Spaniards gained control over Equatorial Guinea by means of the Treaty of El Pardo. The treaty meant an agreement between the Spanish Empire and the Kingdom of Portugal, an agreement in which both powers distributed the borders of their colonies and exchanged some territories in South America and Africa. Nowadays, Spanish is spoken by almost 90% of its population.

We hope you find this information interesting and, above all, that it helps you realize that Spanish can open a whole world of opportunities. If you find the topic interesting, we encourage you to watch the video “Lugares remotos donde se habla español” and tell us which country has surprised you the most.

"Dying is a wild night and a new road." (Emily Dickinson)

The celebration of death

The Halloween celebration is fast approaching, and with it all the preparations for the spookiest night of the year, a night at which we remember those who are no longer among us. At don Quijote, we want to take this opportunity to bring you some interesting facts about the origins of this tradition and its meaning.

You can also read this blog post in Spanish.

Although it is true that Halloween is especially commemorated in the US (or in Mexico, where the festival is known as Day of the Dead and consists of honoring deceased loved ones), the fiesta has been exported to the rest of the world in recent decades and it seems that has come for good. Decorated pumpkins and skulls, the game of "trick or treat" or the costumes of witches, ghosts and zombies have become part of our collective imaginary.

However, and contrary to what many may think, Halloween wasn’t invented in the US. Read on to find out more about the history of Halloween.

History of Halloween

No one knows what happens when we pass away, but death, as well as all the mystery around it, has always been a source of inspiration for artists of all ages and disciplines. But not only for artists, because if there is something that we all have in common, it’s precisely that the grim reaper awaits all at the end of our days.

Since time immemorial and to this day, death has been very present in the traditions and customs of many cultures and peoples around the world. In order to explain why Halloween is celebrated we must go back to the times of the Celtic communities in Ireland. Like most celebrations and traditions, this is a festival of pagan origin.

The ritual was known as Samhain ("the end of summer" in Gaelic) and it was meant to honor autumnal equinox and, which commemorated the end of the harvest, which coincided with the arrival of the Celtic New Year. However, this is not the only nor the most important reason, because what the Celts mainly pursued was to connect with the world of the dead. The belief was that the barrier that separated this world and the next one was thinner at this time of the year, maybe because nights are longer during this period.

It was also believed that evil spirits came from the other world to take the living, so the Druids made bonfires and spells to ward them off. People prepared food and sweets and left it at the door of their houses to entertain them.

But with the appearance of Christianity, the tradition underwent several changes, since it was considered that this kind of ritual could attract the devil. In this way, the party was transferred to November 1 and called All Saints Day.

The party arrives in the United States

It was in the 18th century, with the first wave of Irish immigrants, when the party is exported to the United States. Although at first the celebration was persecuted by the Puritans who lived in New England, after the second wave of migration in the late nineteenth century, they managed to establish the holiday permanently.

The tradition was mixed with the beliefs of the American Indians at the time of the conquest of the West. In this way and in these years, the custom of telling scary stories, the "trick or treat", the costumes of witches and ghosts begin to be included in the rituals of celebration.

Nowadays

The Halloween party became one of the most important in North America. And at the end of the twentieth century, in most European countries and possibly thanks to the influence of literature, film and television, young people began to celebrate this date in the style of the States.

Thus, the holiday has been moving away from the Judeo-Christian tradition year after year, being transformed into a night event full of mystery, ghosts, zombies, witches and sense of humor.

Popular slang words among young Spaniards (and their Spanish counterparts)

Although 60% of Spaniards say they can’t speak English, there are more and more foreign terms that end up slipping through their everyday conversations. New tech, the rise of the Internet, and globalization explain somehow the Shakespearization of Spanish. But, are all these loans actually necessary?

Read this post in Spanish.

In 2016, RAE (Royal Spanish Academy) launched a campaign against anglicisms called “Lengua madre solo hay una”, which encouraged the use of Spanish counterparts for popular words such as brainstorming or casting.

However, Spanish youngsters have taken the lead in the use of anglicisms due to their exposure to the Internet. We have compiled some of them in this list with the trendiest English words (and their Spanish meaning). From now on… there’s no excuse to get Spanish back on track!

1. Crush

A crush is an intense and usually short-lived infatuation commonly translated into Spanish as flechazo (‘arrow wound’, referring to Cupid’s). Another Spanish counterpart that we recommend is amor platónico (platonic love).

2. Hater

Social media are a breeding ground for anglicisms. This term was born right there to describe people who complain about everything or who present intense hostility online. We agree that the direct translation odiadores doesn’t sound like a match, but what about criticones (fault-finders)?

3. Stories

Instagram has changed the way young people speak. Even the different posts types are now part of the Internet vocabulary. Just as it occurred with the Facebook’s timeline in the past, Instagram Stories (easy to translate to Historias) are such a thing nowadays.

4. Mainstream

Since the boom of the underground culture, this word has been on everyone’s lips. Mainstream music, art, fashion, or literature are the ones that get promoted through mass media, reaching large audiences. Although we don’t have an exact counterpart in Spanish, we recommend you use cultura de masas instead.

5. Hype

The hype has become such a popular term in the Internet. This expression, short for hyperbole, depicts excitement or expectation. When Fundéu, a linguistic non-profit organization, asked Twitter how to translate this word into Spanish, bombo or flipe were two of the top-rated options.

That was it for our 5 trendiest anglicisms today. If you want to look at things from another perspective, watch our video about 5 Spanish words that have no English translation.

Traveling abroad to learn Spanish can be a great challenge, but it can also help you open new doors and paths, both academically and professionally. In order to make the challenge a little easier for you and taking advantage of the fact that we are in the month of computer learning, today we are going to talk about computer vocabulary in Spanish.

Click here to read this blog post in Spanish.

The Advancement of New Technology

You already know that emerging technologies are increasingly present in our routines, so we are forced to memorize new concepts frequently, even when we learn another language. New technology has really become part of our every day’s life, whether we are sitting in front of a laptop, using a desktop computer, or even surfing the web on our tablet or smartphone. Besides, it is also important to be able to hold a conversation and to use these concepts in a general context as they may come up time and time again!

Although the vocabulary of technology, especially that of information technology, is full of English origin words which you should identify, many of these terms have been translated or adapted to Spanish so they sound more natural to native speakers. Since it’s important to be accurate and to have a good command of vocabulary, this list will be very useful for you, particularly if you are interested in working in a Spanish speaking office environment or in doing business with Spanish clients or partners that might be using new technology items.

In this section, you will find the most commonly used words in Spanish to refer to hardware, software and interaction with programs which you might have to put in practice in computer related situations. If you are going to be in a situation where it is likely that you need these words, we recommend that you keep them close at hand until you have learned them off by heart, so that you can refer back to them in whatever situation may arise.

Computer Terms in Spanish

And if you want to write the word español properly when using a computer, you will need a keyboard that contains the letter <ñ>. The other options are to copy and paste it or even enter its own symbol code:

• <Ñ> Uppercase: ALT + 0209
• <ñ> Lowercase: ALT + 0241

At don Quijote, we hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post and, especially, that you put these terms into practice so that you will be able to use them as a real native speaker.